A new survey revealed that the Texas Heartbeat Act or Senate Bill 8 is actually strongly supported by the American public despite media's downplaying.
Live Action said the new poll showed that Americans, mostly adults, support the Texas Heartbeat Act once they become well-informed about the law's details. "Very drastic changes" happened to the responses of Americans who participated in the survey after learning more information about the law.
The poll, entitled "Texas Trends Survey 2021," was conducted by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs and the Texas Southern University Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs on 2,067 people last October. The survey has a plus or minus 2.2 margin of error. The survey tackled the overall issue on "Abortion and Transgender Athlete Policies" and the changing response of the population to it.
In the survey's Executive Summary, the authors explained that they asked the participants "under what conditions abortion should be legal" in terms of the stage of pregnancy being after 15 weeks or 20 weeks. It cited the Mississippi law that the United States Supreme Court will be reviewing this December in line with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health case, which tackles the constitutionality of banning abortions on 15 weeks of gestation.
Texas Trends Survey 2021 also cited the Texas House Bill 2 which bans abortions on 20 weeks of gestation. This is not to mention the policy on transgender athletes, which is Texas House Bill 25.
According to the survey's results, more than half of the participants at 69% found SB8 "too restrictive" before details on the law was given. While 46% supported abortion even after six weeks and 23% said the law should only be applicable when the mother's life is at risk or if the pregnancy was cased by rape or incest.
But 55% of the respondents eventually showed strong support for SB8 when the details on the law were given--particularly that it bans abortion six weeks and beyond only if a heartbeat has been detected. The 45% after being briefed remained in opposition to the law.
In terms of demographics, 59% of men and 52% of women strongly support SB8. The same show of support for the law was seen in 58% of Latinos, 55% of whites, 61% of Blacks, 55% for Gen Xers, 50% of Gen Zers, and 65% of Baby Boomers. By political party, 74% of Republicans support SB8 and 55% of Independents. No data was given for Democrats.
The survey highlighted that religiosity plays an important part on the public's particular response to an abortion policy. The survey asked participants to gauge the "importance of religion in their life as "very important," "somewhat important," "not too important," and "not at all important" when pit against an abortion policy of 6 weeks, 15 weeks, and 20 weeks. The survey found that a person's religious beliefs play a "very strong" role in his or her preferential decisions.
"There is a very strong and powerful relationship between the importance of religion in a person's life
and their position on abortion after six, 15, and 20 weeks. As religiosity increases, support for
restrictions on abortion increases, just as when religiosity decreases, support for restrictions on
abortion decreases," the survey disclosed.
Texans who expressed that religion is "very important in their life" showed that 24% "believe abortion should be legal in most cases after six" weeks of pregnancy, 12% after 15 weeks, and 9% after 20 weeks. On the other hand, for Texans who indicated that religion is "not at all important in their life," 81% agree that "abortion should be legal in most cases after six weeks of pregnancy, 65% after 15 weeks, and 47% after 20 weeks.
For Texans who indicated that religion is "not at all important in their life," only 6% "believe abortion should always be illegal at six" weeks of pregnancy, 8% at 15 weeks, and 11% at 20 weeks. This is in contrast with those who say "religion is very important in their life"- who show agreement that abortion should always be illegal at six weeks of pregnancy at 38%, 49% for 15 weeks, and 56% for 20 weeks.
